WASHINGTON (AP) - A scientific advisory committee voted unanimously to send federal regulators a long-stalled report that concludes dioxin causes cancer in laboratory animals and possibly in people.

The conclusions - affecting everything from milk, beef and fish to medical products and the chemical and paper industries - puts another far-reaching environmental issue in the Bush administration's lap.

After more than a decade of study, the Environmental Protection Agency committee findings could provide the basis for federal regulators to impose limits on dioxin that would be costly to the chemical, beef and poultry industries that have opposed them.

The committee split over whether to change wording in their draft report a year ago that said dioxin should be classified as a known human carcinogen.

"It is important that EPA continue to try to limit emissions and human exposure to this class of chemicals in view of their very long biological and environmental persistence," the new version says.

Chlorinated dioxin is an air pollutant that comes from burning plastic and medical waste with chlorine. It settles in grass and feed, which is then eaten and becomes fat in livestock and poultry.

Dioxin also is a generic term for a group of compounds, some of which are more toxic than others.

The contaminant used in Agent Orange, a defoliant sprayed during the Vietnam War, includes the most toxic form of dioxin. Agent Orange exposure has been associated with cancer, birth defects and miscarriages, though a direct link to those health problems remains unproven.

William Glaze, a University of North Carolina professor who chairs the advisory panel, called the report "a huge step forward" toward possibly stricter controls. He said its key finding is that "diet is the principal root of exposure" for people who consume even small amounts of dioxin in dairy products and fatty foods.

"We think that the agency should take action to continue to try to limit emissions of dioxin in the environment. How the agency chooses to do that is up to them," Glaze said in an interview. "This committee felt that regulating emissions is desirable."

He said his panel planned to send the report to EPA Administrator Christie Whitman by June 1. Whitman repeatedly has declined to comment on the report and how her agency intends to use it.

At the 17-member panel's meeting Tuesday, industry representatives questioned the science behind the report's conclusions.

"Despite thousands of studies, great uncertainty remains in our understanding of the effects of dioxin and dioxin-like compounds," Marcie Francis, the science policy director of the Chlorine Chemistry Council, told Glaze's panel.

Environmental groups were pleased the report is going forward. "The fact that this report has been in draft form for the last 10 years has been a stumbling block for community groups and elected officials who have been working together to develop strong dioxin regulations," said Monica Rohde, the dioxin campaign coordinator for the Center for Health, Environment and Justice.

The latest EPA dioxin study is the result of a series of official assessments and reassessments.

In 1985, the agency first looked at the health risks of dioxin and found it to be potentially one of the chemicals posing the greatest cancer threats to humans. But protests from the chemical industry led to another reassessment in 1991, from which the current draft report evolved.

Copyright 2001 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.